Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1887-06-30
From the Church News.
Early Footprints.
By FELIX CONWAY.

! Published by Request.
| Graded between beautiful rivers,
ita low shores washed by the bold wa
ters Of the Chesapeake, lies narrow
slip Of pine and sand, Ultima Thule
of the Western Shore Of Maryland
the SLEEPY Hollow" of the State
"the world forgetting BY the world
forgot" yet it is to this spot should
they seek the cradle land of their faith
in the United States that the foot
steps of every Catholic would turn.
1t is here the pilgrims visiting the
land first made glorious by the light
from the over-shadowing of the angel
Of liberty should come.
The ancient county of st. Mary's is
little known and seldom visited by the
stranger, who, when he finds himself
wandering there, little dreams of the
chapters of unwritten history that live
in local tradition OF else is hidden
away among the ancient papers, buried
in dark hooks and crannies of the old
Colonial homes, where tall chimuies
occasionally greet the eye from amid
stately groves of forest trees. Names
familiar to the student of the early
history of the Colony are here house
hold words-words Long obsolete else
where. Vigorous old English, such
as were used by their ancestors, are
still heard from the lips of the uned-
ucated, and in visiting the old family
graveyards, and locating the time
worn inscriptions on the lichen- -veiled
stones the mind flies back involunta-
rily to the civil wars OF merry Eng
land, when the young King Charles
watched from amidt the nesting boughs
Of oak,
! While far below the Roundhead rode,
4 anu q surely nNlln,
for many of them bear the patronym-
les of families of note, who fed or were
exiled from England after having lost
eAll save honor in the Stuart cause. 1t
is from the chronicle of the tomb we
gather the history Of the past, SO it is
in the ancient graveyards and among
the records Of the churches that We
must seek the links which binds to-
gether the Catholic traditions of Ma
ryland.
Time, which has dealt most gently
with many things in the old Colony,
has not been so merciful to the sacred
edifces, and there is at present but one
church in the county within whose
walls the early pilgrims knelt, though
with few exceptions they have been
rebuilt on or near the sites granted
by the early landed proprietors to the
disciples of the sanity Loyola.
Among the earliest missions cstab-
lishei was that OF St. Joseph's, some
thirty or forty miles from st. Inigos,
situated in the heart Of dense forest,
which was called "St Joseph's Forest"
the tract Of country it formerly cover.
ed still bearing this name.
Tradition locates the first church
that was dedicated in Maryland to the
nursing-father of Our Divine Lord on
a hill overlooking the cemetery, which
is one OF the oldest in the State.
Though there are to be found there the
tombs oftheTaney and Thomas families,
there are none bearing the names of any
family of Colonial distinction, for it
was customary for "the gentry" to in.
ter their dead upon their own estates,
and thus We find attached to the an.
csstrAl hemesteads throughout the
State the family graveyards.
The first St. Joseph's was log hut,
built by the joint labors of the pill
grims and the Patuxent Indians, who
under the just rule Of Calvert had been
converted to Christianity. Within
the roughly hewn walls the Chalice
Of Oblation was first offered to heaven
BY the hand of the sanity White,
while from the forest around arose the
smoke Of the sacrifices offered TO Bar.
cluxor, but the Indians sacred cry,
"Taho, was lost amid the hymns Of JOY
that rolled heSvenward, as the black
robe broke unto the child of the soil
and the pale-fAce" the Bread Of Life
as side by side they knelt, the red man
destined TO vanish and become but a
tradition in the land and the stranger
from over the sea, whose children I
children still hold as their most sacred
treasure the faith their ancestors plant.
ed amid the wilds Of the New World.
No bloody wars Redeemed the let.
ters Of their history; no dangers. save
from the prowling beasts of prey, lurk-
ed in the footsteps OF the holy mis-.
siouary as unarmed he made his way
through the pathless forest. The three
nntches liha mad still rsfa;ns the